Westmoreland
Marcellus Citizens’ Group Updates July 9, 2012
For articles and updates or to just vent, visit us at face book.
To
view permanent documents, past updates, reports, general information and
meeting information http://westmorelandmarcellus.blogspot.com/
For
information on the state gas legislation and local control: http://pajustpowers.org/aboutthebills.html-
Please Cut and
Paste All Links-(they work erratically)
All
Township Residents—Call to Action !!
**Lawsuit
Filed --Resolutions
of Township Support Urged
Please contact Jan for a copy of a resolution
supporting the lawsuit against Act 13. Act 13 precludes the use of local zoning to
restrict gas operations in residential areas, restricts doctors in sharing
important health data, and limits counties in the use of the impact tax (a
partial list).
HOW WE CAN HELP: Please
print the resolution and take it to your next township supervisors’ meeting to
request their support for this lawsuit. Supervisors should return the signed
resolution to Brian Coppola and also to your state representatives.
Sample Statement: See our Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
blogspot, for a sample statement to supervisors. (Address is listed above)
Good references on Act 13:
Top Ten Myths about Act 13 by Sierra Club- http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/FrackingMythbustersFactSheet.pdf
Handout on Act
13 by Penn Future (short version)-
http://www.pennfuture.org/UserFiles/File/MineDrill/Marcellus/CitizenGuide_Act13_20120410_summary.pdf
Delaware
Riverkeepers Basics About Act 13
Penn Future on
act 13 (detailed version)
http://my.pennfuture.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=9002#top
Calendar of Events
People from around the
country will rally in Washington on July 28 for the first national protest
against the use of hydraulic fracturing. Marcellus Protest has done a fine job
in reserving a bus that will leave Lawrenceville PROMPTLY at 8:00 am and return
at 10:30 pm. SPACE IS LIMITED, so buy your ticket NOW. Discount price $25 till
July 15. After July 16 price is $35. Some scholarships may be available. See
Rally schedule below.
2:00pm
Rally
Location:
The West Lawn of the Capitol
This
is the big day; we are organizing to get as many people as possible! We have
people coming from Texas, West Virginia, New York, Vermont, and even Australia.
There will be at least three busloads from Pennsylvania.
3:30
pm March
Location:
The Streets of DC
After
getting pumped up by our awesome speakers, it’s time to hit the streets. We
will make a special delivery to the American Petroleum Institute and American
Natural Gas Association. They say fracking is good for our water, we say nay
and have the water to prove it!
An
update from Gloria:
Buy
your tickets NOW if you want to join us on the bus to DC.
Space
is limited!
Discount
price $25 til July 15.
After
July 15 price is $35
Tickets
sold by credit card ONLY.
**We
have a bit of $ to help pay for tickets for those who cannot afford the $25 -
contact me: gtforouzan (at) gmail.com
Buy
your ticket here:
http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=nreqd8cab&oeidk=a07e63chn2ha1f2a9f5
Among
the sponsors of this, the largest anti-fracking event ever, are Delaware
Riverkeeper Network, Earthworks, NRDC, and the national Sierra Club. Activists
from Western Pennsylvania will be interested to know that the rally in Dc will
be the concluding event for the ‘Tour de Frack’ cyclists who will have ridden
from Butler PA.
***Potluck -- Hosting the
Tour de Frack at Cedar Creek Park
Westmoreland
Potluck Dinner on Monday, July 16, 2012 at Cedar Creek Park, Smithton, PA,
Westmoreland County Pavilion #17
We
will begin our celebration between 5:30 and 6:00 pm.
Let
us know what you would like to bring and
Let
us know if you would like to carpool!
Bring
your musical instruments and we can serenade them on their way to DC.
Here
is a lot more info:
Directions
to the Park and Map of Park to find Pavilion #17.RSVP
Wanda Guthrie wanda.guthrie@gmail.com or
call 724.327.2767 or 412.596.0066.
***Clean Water Camp-Mt.
Watershed
Mountain Watershed Association
is hosting a fun-filled Clean Water Camp in Ohiopyle on July 17th from 2-5 PM
to learn about protection and celebration of clean water resources and honor
the Tour de Frack riders who'll be staying the night at Ohiopyle State Park on
their way to our nation's capitol to share their water stories. Call Melissa at
724-455-4200 ext. 6# or email Melissa@mtwatershed.com with questions.
***
Westmoreland County Commissioners will
conduct public meetings to solicit
comments on how to spend Marcellus shale impact fees.
The meetings will begin
at 6 p.m. on:
• July 9 at Westmoreland County
Courthouse, Main Street, Greensburg
• July 10 at Washington Township
Municipal Building, 289 Pine Run Church Rd
• July 23 at Mt. Pleasant Township
Municipal Building, 208 Poker Road
• July 26 at Rostraver Township
Municipal Building, 201 Municipal Drive
• Aug. 13 at Derry Township
Municipal Building, 5321 Route 982
YOU MUST REGISTER TO SPEAK
TAKE ACTION:
***Take action to stop the
export of gas- (from Food and Water Watch)
Do you know what's even less patriotic than
polluting America's water for decades to come? How about polluting our water to
sell cheap fracked gas to China?
That's right. It's bad enough
that oil and gas companies are polluting our water and making people sick with
fracking, while telling us that fracking is the route to energy independence
(it's not). But they want to take that fracked gas, and sell it overseas.
There are two bills in Congress
right now that could help stop them from exporting oil and gas produced by
fracking. Tell your representative to co-sponsor these bills and help fight
fracking.
*** Take AcTtion-- Write to
Legislators on the Bucks/Montgomery County
Exemption
Link to how they
voted, please thank those who voted No and work to un-elect those who voted
Yes. All PA state reps are up for
election this November:
For Legislators Information:
--go to roll call vote
Sample
letter from one of our group:
“Deep
thanks to those among you who had the interests
of the people of Pennsylvania -- not the Oil and Gas industry -- in your
hearts and minds when voting on the exemption of Bucks and Montgomery from Act
13 this past weekend. Thank you.
The
rest of you have some soul-searching to do; your actions reveal either willful
ignorance and/or contempt for the future of your constituents and the state we
all call home. Your grandchildren will ask you what you were thinking when you
facilitated the degradation of their inheritance...our water and air, and the
beauty of this state.
Continuing
to act as though short-term, self-serving choices have no long-term,
irreversible consequences -- ones that we won't be able to design our way out
of -- is an arrogance we simply can't afford, Legislators.
Wake
up, smell the air, taste the water; make them your priority.
Without them, no jobs will matter, ultimately. We can't drink money.
The
future will judge you by the integrity of your votes, not based on the size of
wallets enriched by corporate contributions.
***
Take Action to Protect Public Lands
I
fully support the BLM's decision to
update rules for oil and gas extraction on our public lands -- a revision
which is long overdue. The technology used to extract oil and gas has advanced
rapidly and regulations to protect our health and environment have not kept
pace, putting our communities and wild lands at risk from dangerous chemicals,
air pollutants and waste products.
Link to send a message: https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2829&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=olouicqf83.app305a
Fracking
Quotes
*** "There was a time when they were eager
to throw you a bone," he said. "But when it's over, it's over." Rick
Bailey, Johnson County commissioner speaking of the need for funding to fix the roads
ruined by frack trucks.
*** “What
makes Bucks and Montgomery [counties] so special? We were here four months ago under the guise of, we had to have uniformity, we had to have consistency, we needed to be
fair," Rep. White speaking on the exemptions from Act 13.
*** "Defendants, experienced in these operations,
were well aware of the connection between injection wells and seismic activity,
and acted in disregard of these facts," says the suit, filed by the
Little Rock class-action firm Emerson Poynter LLP.
***“Before, when I dumped water in,
they drank it right away. Now they wait four or five hours before they drink
it,” Leo Shanlay talking about his water quality after the incident in
Tioga County.
Frack News
1.
On the Injustice of Buck-Montgomery Exemption
“Opponents
cried foul at the inequity this provision creates in the Commonwealth,
affording residents in two southeastern Pennsylvania counties to have
moratorium language, while in the rest of the state local communities have no
control over controversial gas drilling and the effects of hydraulic fracturing
or “fracking.”
Jesse
White-- “Where
was our study? Where was our six years?” asked state Rep. Jesse White, who
represents communities in the heart of drilling country in southwestern
Pennsylvania. “What makes Bucks and Montgomery
[counties] so special? We were here four
months ago under the guise of, we had to have uniformity, we had to have
consistency, we needed to be fair," Rep. White noted. "And now,
four months later, we're saying, 'Maybe, for whatever reason, we're going to
give a few people a pass.'"
“We seem to have leadership in Harrisburg
that believes in different rules for different people,” stated Brian
Coppola, Republican Supervisor for Robinson Township in Washington County. “Act 13
sounded like a good idea to some of the eastern state senators until they found
out it applied to everyone throughout the state. Now they’re trying to protect
themselves from it.”
Deron
Gabriel--Deron Gabriel, Township Commissioner for
South Fayette Township in Allegheny County went on to state, “Act 13 poses a very real threat to all
Pennsylvania residents, and ties the hands of municipal officials who were
elected to protect the health, safety and welfare of residents. Now the legislature has evidently seen fit to
delay drilling in two politically connected counties.”
Myron
Arnowitt--Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director for
Clean Water Action stated, “Most voters
in Pennsylvania don’t believe we should have a separate and unequal system for
gas drilling. Every community deserves
to be able to protect itself from drilling.
Once again our state legislators need to go back and fix their unfair
treatment of residents living with gas drilling.”
From: Fairness becomes the new Battleground
over gas drilling
CONTACT:
David Masur, PennEnvironment
(267) 303-8292
Myron Arnowitt, Clean
Water Action (412) 592-1283
Tracy Carlucio,
Delaware Riverkeeper Network (215) 692-2329
Jeff Schmidt, Sierra
Club (717) 232-0101
2.
And More on the Bucks –Montgomery Exemption
(Walter
Brasch has been doing an outstanding job of covering fracking issues. Here’s an
excerpt from another of his op-eds. Jan)
Pennsylvania Politics Continues to Trump
Health and the Environment
The first question to the Republicans is,
"Why do you support a state law that
discriminates against the rural counties, while you support a special exemption
that protects the health and welfare of the urban and suburban counties that
have many of the state's most powerful and wealthiest constituents, including
the head of the Department of Environmental Protection and the lieutenant
governor?"
The second question is, simply,
"How much more money will it take to continue to buy your loyalty to
corporations, the powerful, and the affluent?"
(http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pennsylvania-Politics-Cont-by-Walter-Brasch-120705-135.html)
Pa.
Political contributions:
3. Sky
Alerts on Gas activity/Problems in Your Area
You can sign up to receive notifications and alerts. This is one of the
best sites I have used because it is easy and the alerts are sent for the area
you choose.
4. MarkWest Tries to Override Cecil Twp. Gas Ordinance Despite the Injunction
(Gas companies are chomping at the bit to
override local ordinances. Jan)
“MarkWest has asked
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court for a preliminary injunction to prevent Cecil
Township from enforcing its oil and gas drilling ordinance.
The company argues that
the ordinance violates Act 13. However,
the zoning portions of Act 13 are not due to go into effect until mid-August
due to a suit filed by Cecil and other communities challenging the
constitutionality of the law.”
5.
Fracking Spill of 4700 Gallons
Hydrochloric Acid in Leroy Twp.
The DEP is
overseeing the cleanup of a 4,700-gallon hydrochloric acid spill that occurred
at a Chief well pad in Bradford County. DEP said the incident caused a minor
fish kill.
The cause of the spill
appears to be caused by valve failure on a tank holding the acid, which then
flowed off the well pad. The incident remains under investigation, according to
Daniel Spadoni, DEP community relations coordinator.
"Some of the acid was collected in a
sedimentation pond, while the remainder flowed through a field and some reached
a small tributary to Towanda Creek causing a minor fish kill," the release
said. "Dams were constructed in the tributary before any acid reached
Towanda Creek."
The
spill comes two weeks after a thirty-foot methane geyser erupted near a Shell
natural gas well in nearby Union Township, Tioga County.
Leroy is the same township where a Chesapeake well suffered a
10,000-gallon fracking fluid blowout in 2011.
(Read the entire story from StateImpact
Pennsylvania. http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/
)
6.Cows
Won’t Drink the Water-Tioga County
“If
you go looking for evidence of Shell’s methane migration problem in Tioga
County, as StateImpact did, you won’t be able to see the 30 foot geyser of
water and natural gas. First, the flow has been reduced to a few feet over the
course of the last week. Second, the company has blocked off access to the
site.
What
you can see, though, are the large, loud
flares burning off gas at nearby pads. They’re part of an effort to reduce
underground pressure and bring methane leaks under control. “We’re seeing that
brings down — it depressurizes — the gas that could be contributing to
migration in the immediate area,” said Shell spokeswoman Kelly de Weegh.
For farmer Leo Shanlay,
who lives a bit more than a mile from where the problems are occurring,
evidence that something might be amiss came from his cows. Shanlay’s nine
calves won’t drink any water from his drinking well. “Before, when I dumped
water in, they drank it right away. Now they wait four or five hours before
they drink it,” he said, standing in front of an idling tractor. The calves
started losing interest in his well water on Tuesday. They’re happy to drink
the water his uncle trucks in from another site, though.”
(Pictures at the stateimpact site show 3 wells
being flared simultaneously to control the methane, releasing toxins into the
air.)
7. Blockaders Stop EQT Fracking Operation
to Protect
Moshannon State Forest-
Marcellus Earth First!
by Iris Marie Bloom, 7-8-12
“Blockaders
in Moshannon State Forest in western Pennsylvania have shut down a fracking
well pad run by EQT Corporation, as of July 8th. At 12:45 pm Marcellus Earth First reported,
“SITE COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN! All six
workers on site have been escorted off site by police. The workers were very friendly and people
talked with them extensively.” (150 protestor blocked the access road for
fracking trucks to the EQT rig. Some of the protestors were sitting in trees
others, built the road blockade. Debbie)
This
is at least the fourth known blockade in the state of Pennsylvania, as the
nightmares unleashed by fracking intensify. The full life-cycle impacts in PA
so far have ranged from dead animals and sickened people to unbearable noise,
contaminated water, polluted air, exploding and burning compressor stations,
homes exploding from methane migration, to truck accidents, destroyed roads,
massive sedimentation and erosion problems, illegal dumping of fracking waste,
and legal dumping of toxic radioactive brine on roads for “dust suppression.”
As impacted communities and their allies organize, as people recognize that we
are running out of time to stop runaway climate change, and as the scientific
research showing that fracking is worse for climate than coal becomes more
widely understood, a broader, deeper and better organized movement is
developing.”
“Having grown up enjoying Moshannon State
Forest in so many ways, I am absolutely appalled at the ongoing destruction.
The once narrow and inviting oak-shaded lanes are now being replaced by dust
and traffic choked roads for chemical laden trucks – there are no words to
describe the injustice of taking public land, meant to provide a source of
beauty and wilderness for all and turning it into an industrial zone.” said
Jenny Lisak.”
8. EPA
Urges DEP to Strengthen General
Permit 5 (GP 5)
(From
Clean Air Council who is doing an absolutely outstanding job of trying to
protect our air. Jan)
Clean
Air Council attorneys were at the PA Air Quality Technical advisory committee
meeting where they were provided with comments from EPA Region 3 on general
permits.
1.
EPA noted that the general permit fails to contain federally enforceable
emission limitations. The limitation
must be contained in a permit that has undergone
public participation
2.
EPA also urged DEP to consider the cumulative
impact from numerous GP5s on attaining and maintaining air quality
standards. (Again! EPA keeps recommending and the DEP keeps ignoring, jan)
3.
Also, EPA stated that startup, shutdown
and malfunction emissions cannot be exempt as contemplated in the GP5.
4.
EPA recommended providing more explicit
guidance on what must be included in the
greenhouse gas calculations that applicants are responsible for.
(http://cleanair.org/program/outdoor_air_pollution/marcellus_shale/epa_urges_padep_strengthen_gp_5)
9. Legislators Want to Change DEP
Permit System
from bob
“PA lawmakers want
to change the permit system so that some permits, if not reviewed in the 60 day
time period, will never be reviewed by DEP and others will be reviewed only by
private contractors.
“Under the provisions
of House Bill 1659, sponsored by Rep. Jeffrey Pyle, R-Armstong, DEP would have
60 days to review any final permit application. If DEP missed that deadline, the permit
would automatically be granted. The bill also instructs DEP to “implement a
plan to use qualified nondepartmental
employees” to review applications” (That’s code for private companies evaluating
permits. bob).
10.
Leasers Beware-Change in DEP Spill
Policy
From Bob
“DEP has a new draft policy. Previously if DEP learned that a gas company
or its contractor spilled waste on private property, DEP inspectors had the
ability and often did make sure the spill was cleaned up and the contamination
was removed from the site.
But under the new
policy, DEP makes clear that any spill more than something very small (42
gallons) will be cleaned up using the risk-based standards of Act 2. That means
that if you are the leaser of property and a gas company contaminates your soil
or groundwater, the DEP will not ensure that contamination is removed
from your property — it will
only make sure the company does what is necessary to meet the risk-based
standards under Act 2. As a result, property owners who plan to lease land
for gas development should know that the DEP will not be there to ensure your
land remains as clean as it was before drilling. Anyone who plans to sign a
lease with a drilling company may want to consider the impact of this policy,
and whether to add language to the lease that enhances the cleanup of
pollutants released onto their land or groundwater.”
11. N.C. Rep. Accidentally
Votes for Fracking
Rep. Becky Carney
–D, cast the deciding vote to support fracking by accidentally pushing a green
button at her desk. She wrongly voted to override a veto by North Carolina’s Democratic
governor. Under state rules, legislators can change their votes if they make a
mistake, but only if the changed vote wouldn’t affect the result. Carney’s was the 72nd person to vote for the
override, the exact number needed to do so.
(http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/n-c-lawmaker-fracks-up-her-vote/)
Carney,
burst into tears after mistakenly voting with Republicans to override Gov
Perdue’s-D veto of the contentious legislation. “It feels rotten,” Carney said,
in an interview. “It’s a very heavy responsibility because I just feel like the
state is not ready.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/04/nc-lawmaker-hits-wrong-button-approves-fracking/
12. Class-Action Suit over Earthquakes
Caused by
Frack Disposal Wells
“What
may be the first class-action suit against oil and gas companies for unleashing
earthquakes as strong as magnitude 4.7 is in the federal courts in Arkansas. This prompted state officials last summer
to ban drilling waste disposal wells in a 1,150-square-mile area. Four wells
ceased operations.
The plaintiffs and
their attorneys say the companies knew about the risk of earthquakes from their
operations but did not do enough to prevent them.
"Defendants, experienced in these operations, were well aware of
the connection between injection wells and seismic activity, and acted in
disregard of these facts," says the suit, filed by the Little Rock
class-action firm Emerson Poynter LLP on behalf of Stephen Hearn and several
other residents of Faulkner County, Ark.+
There is no federal law against causing
earthquakes, but the suit alleges that the quakes were caused by negligence,
amounted to trespassing and created a public nuisance (EnergyWire, June 18).
Before two of the wells
stopped operating in the spring of 2011, there were 85 earthquakes with a
magnitude of 2.5 or higher. Since the shutdown there have been fewer quakes,
according to the state Geological Survey.”
13. Acute Ozone Linked to heart
Attacks
“Young,
healthy adult volunteers exposed for two hours to ozone developed physiological
changes associated with cardiovascular ailments, according to a small study
reported in Circulation, an American
Heart Association journal.
Study
participants showed evidence of vascular inflammation, a potential reduced
ability to dissolve artery-blocking blood clots, and changes in the autonomic
nervous system that controls the heart’s rhythm. The changes were temporary and
reversible in these young, healthy participants.
Recent
epidemiology studies have reported associations between acute exposure to ozone
and death but little is known about the underlying pathophysiological pathways
responsible.” (Stone hearth news, study by Robert Devlin, EPA s National Health
and Environmental Effects Research Lab in NC)
(This
study contributes to an understanding of
how ozone works physiologically to harm the body. The concern is that we
already have orange ozone days too frequently and fracking will add tons of
ozone precursors to the air. jan)
14. Chesapeake Appears to Have
Colluded with Encana
“Aubrey McClendon,
as chief executive (he is now CEO) for Chesapeake failed
to disclose up to $1.1 billion in personal loans borrowed against his share of
company oil and gas wells under a unique company program that gave the former
chairman a 2.5 percent stake in the profits of thousands of drilled wells.
The company
was rocked anew last week when the news agency disclosed a series of email
exchanges in which McClendon and other
Chesapeake executives appeared to collude with officials at EnCana Corp.,
Canada’s largest gas company, to suppress the price of land leases in Michigan.
Reuters
reported on Monday that the Justice Department has launched a probe into
whether these communications violated laws against price fixing.”
15. If you haven not seen the Josh
Fox video “Sky is Pink” yet--
The film is
called "The Sky Is Pink" because it is talking about the fracking
"debate." This is a tactic
of misinformation that has been employed for a very long time, going back to
the tobacco industry in the 1950s. A PR firm called Hill & Knowlton decided
to push out bogus statements and bogus science saying cigarettes are not bad
for you, that medical reports about how it leads to diseases like cancer were
not true and were exaggerated, and they created doubt in the public's mind.
As long as there was doubt, people continued doing the
things they were addicted to. The same strategy has been employed by the gas
industry, and in fact, the very same PR firm employing this strategy, Hill
& Knowlton, was employed by the American Natural Gas Alliance in 2009. And
the idea here is, "We're going to seed doubt; we're going to say this is
naturally occurring methane; we're going to say the science is in
question," when in fact they know full well that the science is not in
question. It helps maintain our addiction to fossil fuels.”
Video:
16. Texas Road Problems Due to
Drilling Trucks
The new wave of oil and gas production, has taken a huge toll on the
state's roads. The Texas Department of Transportation told industry representatives
and elected officials that repairing
roads damaged by drilling activity would "conservatively" cost $1
billion for farm-to-market roads and another $1 billion for local roads. And
that doesn't include the costs of maintaining interstate and state highways.
"We need $2 billion, and the shortfall is
$2 billion."
Now that
drilling activity has slowed significantly, the big operators are gone and
small subcontractors are hauling salt water and drilling mud, often making it
difficult to get anyone to cover road maintenance costs, said Rick Bailey,
Johnson County Precinct 1 commissioner.
"There was a time when they
were eager to throw you a bone," he said. "But when it's over, it's
over."
Six years
ago, 90 percent of the roads in his precinct were in good condition. Now about
60 percent are, he said.
Drilling trucks have caused an
estimated $2 billion in damage to Texas roads, 6 02, 2012 BY
BARRY SHLACHTER
17. Chesapeake--- 1% Tax Rate
“Chesapeake
Energy Corp. made $5.5 billion in pretax profits since its founding more than
two decades ago. So far, the
second-largest U.S. natural-gas producer has paid income taxes on almost none
of it. Chesapeake paid about 1 percent of the cumulative pretax profits
during that period, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
While Chesapeake
is the biggest U.S. oil and gas producer with such low tax payments, it’s far
from alone. Range Resources Corp. paid
income taxes of about 0.4 percent of pretax income over the past decade,
the data show. Southwestern Energy Co. paid 2.1 percent and EQT Corp. paid 5.3
percent, the data show. The U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent.”
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-02/cheaspeake-s-1-tax-rate-shows-cost-of-drilling-subsidy.html )
18. Mark West Rail Load Out in
Westland, SW PA
Nearby MarkWest plant separates gas liquids
for truck and rail shipment
-sorry, having trouble transferring pics. ...see newsletter
PA DEP document: “The initial rail load-out will allow for
the transfer of up to 402 million gallons of natural gas liquids, with the potential to emit an estimated 4.53 tons
of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 24.63 tons of carbon monoxide (CO), 9.85 tons of
volatile organic compounds (VOC), 1.03 tons of hazardous air pollutants (HAP),
and 9,387 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.”
All photos by
Bob Donnan
Bob Donnan
http://www
.marcellus-shale.us/images/MarkWest_5-6-12.jpg
